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From: pardoej@lonnds.ml.com (Julian Pardoe LADS LDN X1428)
Subject: Re: plural of "curriculum vitae"
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References: <Pine.SGI.3.91.960926154339.26533B-100000@cicum90>
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1996 13:41:43 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu sci.classics:14455 sci.lang:62213

In article <Pine.SGI.3.91.960926154339.26533B-100000@cicum90>, Oliver Neukum <c188@cicum90> writes:
-->
-->> > >Curriculi vitae would be the plural..
-->> >
-->> > Curricula.
-->> 
-->> Is it not also "vitarum" then?  (Of course, my Latin was two years in
-->> high school, so....)
-->> 
-->vitae is a genitive meaning " of life "
-->if you are describing the same life several times : vitae
-->describung a number of lives : vitarum

I'm not sure that this matter can be resolved by logical argument.
It's more a question of liguistic habit.

I remember being told at school that where we would say "they wipe
their noses" (because more than one nose is involved) the French 
would say "they wipe their nose" (because each person has but one
nose).  To me the French version implies that they wipe their single,
collective nose.  I imagine that to a French-speaker the English
version suggests that each person has several noses.

It might be that "curricula vitae" is correct because each
curriculum concerns just one life (even though all the curricula
taken together describe many lives).

So, it's not a question of logic but of habit -- and the logic
that you use may well be based on inbuilt bias towards your
own language.

The question is: what was usage of the ancient Romans (or of
the users of mediaeval Latin)?

-- jP --


